


Deliveries

by SteveCaster



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 13:50:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20026858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveCaster/pseuds/SteveCaster
Summary: The crew awake to find the Liberator wrecked and Zen silent...





	1. Chapter 1

A noise cut through the semi darkness of the bridge. A groan and a shuffle. Zen's lights flickered, casting scant illumination on the crew.

Blake attempted to rouse himself. 

"My head," he began before sinking back down. "Zen, report!"

No answer.

A white foam covered the control stations and a strange smell hung in the air. Another sound, this time from the couch, brought Blake back from the edge of sleep.

"Blake? Is that you?" a woman's voice, Jenna.

"Yes," he murmured. "Can you move? I seem to be incapacitated."

With great effort, Jenna rose into a sitting position. She surveyed the scene. Utter carnage. Wiring hung lose from the ceiling, the couch was battered and ripped, control stations were knocked over.

"Blake, what happened?"

The others were starting to come round too. Vila picked himself out of the gun storage area, Gan sat up from behind a console, Cally lifted herself off the domed scanner and Avon disentangled himself from a makeshift hammock.

Suddenly, a huge vibration shook the ship.

"Someone's trying to dock," said Jenna with as much urgency as she could muster.

"Zen report!" ordered Avon. However, Zen still gave no answer.

Gan struggled to his feet. "I'll go and see who it is." He began to wobble his way into the corridor. 

"Gan, don't let them in," said Avon. But he was too late, Gan had gone.

"Ohhh my head," said Vila. "Cally, any chance of a bit of soma. You know, just to calm the nerves?"

Avon began fiddling with the controls.

"Whatever happened here, will take a while to fix. Does anyone remember anything?"

"Prioritise Zen. Without him we are not going to go very far," said Blake.

"Perhaps, Orac can tell us something?" offered Jenna.

Everyone thought this was a good idea. But although Orac was easy to find, his key proved illusive. Try as they might, they couldn't find it anywhere. 

"Useless piece of junk," complained Vila. "All that technology and when we actually need it, we can't turn it on. We need a spare key, I've said so for years."

Avon clicked a button and the lights returned to normal illumination. There was a collective wince before Blake told Avon to turn them back down.


	2. Chapter 2

None of them could remember why the party had started. Perhaps they all just needed to let their hair down. But, as Vila kept telling them, the important thing was that it was a party.  
"This is a party," he kept saying.  
And he was right.  
Surprisingly, Avon had unwound the quickest. After just a couple of drinks he became the life and soul. It was a fascinating side of him which the others had never seen.  
"And the bar tender says, 'Never mind the pigeon, what about the data uplink!' Avon laughed heartily.

The others looked at each other for a moment, unsure how to react to the worst joke in history, before falling about laughing. Gan entered the bridge.

"Look what I've found!" he beamed. 

"Where did you get that from, Gan?" asked Jenna. 

Gan wouldn't say but he happily paraded round with the traffic cone on his head for a couple of hours whilst telling the others "Shhhhush... It's a library."

"This is a party," said Vila.

As drinking games go, 'CONFIRMED' lacked nuance. The rules were very simple. Every time Zen said his catch phrase everyone had to have a drink, apart from the person who got him to say it.

Jenna was very good at it at first and took an early lead but Vila's commands, though a bit vague, got him right back into the game.

"Zen, make Liberator go forward!"  
"Confirmed"

Giggles.

"Now make it go backwards!"

"Confirmed"

More laughter.

At one point, Blake went missing for a few minutes and then turned up with an impish look in his eyes. He sidled up to Avon.

"er, Avon. If I might have a word?"

As Avon turned round, Blake revealed a can of shaving foam and gave Avon a liberal dose. For a moment, Avon looked like he may explode, before roaring with laughter, grabbing the can from Blake and retaliating. Cally quickly joined in, using her guerrilla fighting skills to ambush people. Soon she decided to make a stockade and pushed over a couple of control columns to form a barricade. Hiding behind them she would pop out at a target and yell, "May you die afoam!" before retreating, laughing to herself.

The high spot of the evening came when Avon dimmed the lights and announced he'd been working on a secret project which he was now ready to reveal.

He gave a dramatic pause.

"As you may have noticed, I have been a bit secretive recently."  
"No!" The crew bellowed heartily.

"But it has been with good reason. Very good reason. Very, very, good reason. In fact, it has been such a good reason that I thought it would be a shame to tell anyone."

"Get on with it!" called Vila.

Avon fixed him with one of his most withering looks. Or at least he assumed it was Vila he was looking at, the lighting was very dim. He asked himself why that was and remembered his announcement.

"Zen, run Avon alpha two," he said dramatically, swaying slightly.

"Confirmed."

Everyone took a drink.

Zen's reference ball momentarily stopped flashing and the crew fell silent. Moments later an appreciative 'ahhhhhh' fell across the room.

A kaleidoscope of colours filled Zen's ball. Each one streaking out across the room like a laser light. At the same time, dance music started to play from the ship's speakers. Avon had done his research and had chosen ancient classical music from the 1970s. Before long, the infectious disco rhythm had the whole crew dancing.

"This is a party!" said Vila.

"Who's hungry?" asked Blake. There was a rush of hands. "OK. Now where's Orac?"

Despite Orac's protestations, "I refuse to be used to locate fast food outlets." An order was eventually placed. There was considerable discussion as to whether they should go and pick it up or not. But in the end, they decided that the parking bays would be so tight for Liberator that really, delivery was the only option.

It was while they were waiting for the food, that Avon announced the next game. He'd managed to reprogram Zen to recognise a new name and the others had to guess what it was. If they couldn't then they would have to make him something he'd always dreamed of - a control room hammock, right here on the bridge.

After many guesses, the crew finally admitted defeat.

Avon threw a grin at them, "Sven, report!"

"All systems are operating within their expected capacity," replied Sven.

The food was taking an awfully long time to arrive so it was decided that a game of hide and seek was in order. Cally wanted to hunt so she went to the scanner dome to begin counting. Avon showed no interest and lay down in his new hammock. Vila squeezed into the weapon's area, Gan dived behind Cally's barricade and the others found spaces where they could. 

Cally slumped over the dome. Counting proved too much for her and she drifted off to sleep.

Soon the room was filled with gentle snoring.


	3. Chapter 3

Avon looked up as Gan entered the room.  
"Don't worry," said Gan smiling. "I didn't let them on board for long."  
"What did they want?" asked Avon.  
Gan produced several large boxes from a bag. The smell of curry, pizza and other foods filled the air. The crew perked up.  
"A massive tip," said Gan.

End


End file.
